Judy Chicago & the California Girls

“Judy Chicago & the California Girls” is an historical documentary by and about women, at the birth of the Women’s Art Movement in Fresno, California, 1971.

“At the height of the 1970’s Women’s Movement, on the cusp of revolutionary change, American artist Judy Chicago began a unique experiment: to train only young women artists in an all-woman art program at Fresno State College. So many young women were going into art schools, Chicago states, so few coming out the other end as professional artists. The film “Judy Chicago & the California Girls” documents this first all-woman art program, in a compelling and candid portrait of a country and culture in the midst of great social change. Highlights include a visit by radical feminist theorist Ti-Grace Atkinson, Chicago’s early performance pieces the “Cock Cunt Play” and the “Cunt Cheer”, and Chicago’s female-centered philosophy that shaped her later work. Some of Chicago’s students who appear in the film and went on to become important artists in their own right include Faith Wilding, Suzanne Lacy, Nancy Youdelman and Vanalyne Green.”